Manny Otiko

Reaction to The Billion Dollar
Skeleton by Phan Huy Duong

This story is an important allegory
about the Vietnam War and the clash between Western and Eastern culture. It is
told in a strange, almost fairy-tale like style. I think that certain
characters in this story are symbolic figures. For example the Billionaire, who
I think is loosely based on Ross Perot, represents American arrogance and
ignorance. He thinks that with his money and clout he can solve any problem
even finding his sonís remains. He fails to realize that his effort is an
affront to Vietnamese culture, which reveres ancestral burial places. The old
man represents Eastern Confucian values, which respect the wisdom of the
ancients. He eventually gets the Billionaire to see the error of his ways. The
blue-eye child, who I think is the offspring of the Billionaireís son and a
Vietnamese woman, represents hope and the positive aspects that have come out
of the combination of Vietnamese and American cultures. Also, in the final chapter
the Billionaire marries a Vietnamese service woman and one of their children
goes on to be the first female president of the United States.

This story is the strangest of all
the ones I have read in the book. It is written in a very simplistic style and
the final paragraph of the story has an upbeat end, like many fairy tales.
In addition, like many of the other stories written by Vietnamese authors
it shows that the victors also suffered many physical and mental wounds during
the war. The piles of bones and the funeral pyre are symbolic of all the lives
lost during the war.